Dentistry focus: ‘We did that!’

on 20 September 2011

I thought I would have a look at what often seems to be one of the biggest challenges facing many dental business owners – leadership. My intention is to encourage thinking that is outside of the common themes.

The volume of books available, suggests that ‘leadership’ eludes many and that it is something to acquire or attain. If so, how will you know when you have got it and what if you are chasing something that you already have?

This may be counter-intuitive, particularly if you have had to fight and strive to improve your leadership skills. But, it is apparent that those whom we acknowledge as being great leaders (and for that, include parents, politicians, teachers and others as well as dental business leaders) do achieve success in a way that people hardly notice their ‘leadership’. This means that the best leaders achieve far more by governing less.

Their contribution is constant rather than hurried and their success appears to be effortless. The effortless dental business leader receives the admiration of others and yet, lets that admiration quietly pass by. His leadership may not be obvious or labelled.

A look, a few committed words or a moment of silence can be more powerful than anything delivered from behind the comfort of a lectern, an email or a management structure.The leaders that aspire to be like him are in search of praise and recognition from their team and others.

They see leadership as something that they have to get rather than something that they already have and, in doing so, it becomes a fight and a struggle for them to achieve something that they think they must deserve.

The effortless dental business leader has a natural belief that he will always do the right thing and he will do so without question or dilemma.

He understands that he cannot get something that he already has and he knows this is also true of those he leads.

When his work is done, the job finished, the project complete or the disagreement settled, he is able to quietly step aside while his team congratulate each other and say ‘we did that!’